LET’S PLAY “GUESS DREW DOUGHTY’S CONTRACT DEMAND”

As I arrived home and wondered if it was worth the time to sit and watch a repeat of the NHL awards, a question occurred to me: How much would I “want” if I was Drew Doughty? For this question, I assumed that Drew Doughty and his agent were one indistinguishable human being. If we were to separate the two, I would have to design a graph that shows the relationship between a hockey player’s mind v. that of his agent, there would be fairly complicated physiological, biological and other types of ogical factors laid out and, most importantly, the name of this game would change to “guess Drew Doughty and his greedy son of a bitch of an agent’s contract demand” and that game doesn’t sound nearly as fun.

So, let us modify the old Freudian question to ask, “what does Drew want?”

That depends on what Drew is asking the question. A self-critical, selfless, objective minded, integrity or death driven, mature beyond his years Drew would want something different than another kind of Drew, agree? Mix in the unavoidable viral effect of an agent and you could have several types of Drews. Let us explore each:

This Drew downplays his tremendous talent because he knows, without work ethic, that talent is a ship that never reaches its port. This Drew believes he hasn’t proven enough in the NHL on a long enough and consistent basis to merit an elite-player level contract and further recognizes he regressed when one objectively compares last season to that of the season before. The mature and selfless side of this Drew puts the team first and wants to give the Kings the cap flexibility to land elite scoring talent and catapult the team to contender status, which will not only help the franchise progress forward but will also benefit him in the long run so he can fairly request that big contract when the time comes. This Drew’s contract demand is:

This Drew knows his talent level and places himself in the top echelon of players under age 25 in the league. He will admit that he could have had a better season, but believes the regression to be related to his injury early on, as evidenced by his performance in the second half. He believes he is an integral part of this team’s core, wants to remain a Los Angeles King and simply wants a contract that is commensurate with his talent and what he perceives to be his critical role on the team. This Drew’s contract demand is:

This Drew listens intently to a voice inside his head, which psychologists call one’s “Inner Meehan.” The Inner Meehan is what tells each of us that our greatness deserves reward, that it is not a crime to be self entitled and that money is the only tangible form of approbation. This inner voice focuses less on measurable statistics and results over an extended time period leading to today but instead isolates and then magnifies one’s own self-worth and projects future majesty and prominence at an elevated present dollar value. “You are one of the best defensemen in the game, Drew, why shouldn’t you make bank?” are the echoed words of Doughty’s Inner Meehan. This Drew still cares for his team and the franchise, but believes himself to be such a critical part of its success, that to accept less than his “real” worth would be an insult. This Drew’s contract demand is:

5-8 years, $6.8 million dollar per season cap hit

Drew #4: …before I get to this Drew, let me just clarify that the types of Drews referenced herein should not be evaluated in isolation. It is reasonably probable that a Drew could have a combination of qualities from each of these categories and some qualities may be heightened or mitigated depending on the pervading external or societal influences. Now, to this Drew…you’re a little scared, aren’t you? The final Drew is the lying money hungry c*** sucker, AKA “The Agent”

We call this Drew “The Agent” not in a representative capacity but more a natural force or object that produces or is used to obtain a specific result. For example, insects are “agents” of fertilization. This Drew is his Agent. His Agent controls his thoughts, words and actions. This Agent has no soul, conscience, character, and no regard for reason. This Agent is a parasite, one that simply seeks to leech onto and suck the blood from whatever host it meets. Unfortunately, an Agent’s power over its host is most powerful from mid June through early October. Scientists recently learned that Russians are especially susceptible to such Agents during this time period. This Drew’s contract demand, with the Agent’s premise of a “very reasonable cap hit” is:

5 replies

I believe it will be around $6 mill, but that is dependant on which DL we will get (a clever creative DL, or a greedy lowballing DL) more than what type of DD we’ll get (Meehan, and Morris could screw it up, but that’s a different story). He is deserving of more, but the drop in points will hopefully bring a compromise. His puck control stats (corsi, and relative corsi) are better now than at anytime the previous 2 years, which means he dipped in scoring, but is getting better at controlling the game overall.

It’s not being money hungry unless you think he owes the Kings a hometeam discount. DD’s GVT is comparable to Zdeno Chara, Dan Boyle, Duncan Keith and Shea Weber, and there’s no reason to believe DD will continue to dip offensively.

Hopefully Drew #2 will be what the Kings get. Doubt Drew #1 will appear. Drew #4 brings back memories of the Kovalchuk farce. I have a feeling this Meehan guy is a real dick. Hopefully Dean will not have to break the bank to pay this guy. Drew also has to understand that the cap introduces a dynamic that pay needs to be shared with teammates. If they end up paying him a ton to fight off an offer sheet, the rest of the unsigned players may suffer. Might not be good for team harmony.

As heroic as it might be to taking one for the team, he should be paid a fair wage.http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=986
I think a low wage would definately help the team, but I think everybodies expecting him to just take the low bluebook price, because if he doesn’t, then he’s a greedy son of a bitch.

… I think this off-season will be something of a “day of reckoning” for Dean Lombardi. There are three very obvious and pressing needs for him to take care of, and we’re at that point where he’s been here five years and has four playoff victories to show for it.

Need number one is to get the Smyth contract off of the Kings’ books, without bringing back too much salary in return. Need number two is to find that elusive top-line forward.

Need number three is the Doughty situation, and it’s so different from anything else Lombardi’s ever done here.

Cammalleri was easy for Lombardi to drop, Michael wasn’t Dean’s guy anyway, and was coming off of a season where he wasn’t 100% and where the results weren’t there. Cammalleri had taken the Kings to arbitration, and from that point on, he was simply “Dead to Dean”.

Both Brown and Kopitar signed Dean’s type of deal without much disagreement.

But now, here’s a star player – arguably the best player on the team, even after considering the drop in his scoring – a player who was Dean’s prize draft pick, a guy who wanted to be a King, a guy who Lombardi apparently did all of this research on, etc. etc. etc. He can’t pull the whole “if he doesn’t sign MY deal on MY terms, he’s dead to me” act that he pulled with Cammalleri (and Blake as well). That won’t fly now. He’s going to have to give a little, swallow some of his pride and his ego, to get this done. Doughty’s not Kopitar. Drew knows he was Dean’s pick, unlike Anze; he was a higher draft than Anze, he’s a North American boy who has grown up with the NHL and the contracts/cash flow of this league, unlike Anze. He’s heard everyone in his home country, the Mecca of Hockey, sing his praises – and he’s won a gold medal at the Olympic games for that country. He’s the chosen one, and he knows it.

Anze has a cap hit of $6.8 million. Doughty should be right there as well, if not higher. Dean needs to step forward and do this the right way. It will define him as a GM of the L.A. Kings. This isn’t going to be spun away by saying the same old shit like “well I tried soooo hard and we reeeeeeally wanted to do this but that mean old greedy player just didn’t let me have my way, so I took my ball and went home!” Nope, I’m afraid not. If he can’t get this done, he will lose his job, and the Kings will continue to drift along their title-less path for another decade, or two.

“We call this Drew “The Agent” not in a representative capacity but more a natural force or object that produces or is used to obtain a specific result. For example, insects are “agents” of fertilization. This Drew is his Agent. His Agent controls his thoughts, words and actions. This Agent has no soul, conscience, character, and no regard for reason.”

… I would advise you not to continue to kid yourself in this way. Agents are the employee of the player. If you don’t believe me, believe Curt Schilling.

“Understand one thing, the player ALWAYS, ALWAYS, has 100% say in every single matter regarding ANY issues the agent is HIRED to oversee. If not, the player can fire the agent at any point in time. Agents work for players. The unfortunate fact is that some agents have made this appear exactly the opposite.”

Now, maybe Doughty’s a bit awed by his agent, or intimidated by him – as Schilling goes on to say is something that’s common with young players. That’s certainly a possibility. But in the end, it’s the player’s call. I’m sure Doughty is aware of what the ballpark is, and what the Kings’ pay structure is.

The best Kings’ defenseman of all-time was Rob Blake. In the end, Blake was wrongly done by the Kings – not once, but twice. Doughty is the next-best defenseman in team history; someone who has every opportunity to match or exceed what Blake has done here in L.A. If the Kings do Doughty wrong, they will suffer the consequences. As the Fram oil filter guy used to say … “you can pay me now, or you can pay me later”.

Nice post. I think you’ve brokedown the differences in how DL could possibly approach this, which is the 2 types of DL I was reffering to. The market is going to fluctuate up and down since Anze signed his contract, and it would be a mistake to think that, because Anze is payed X amount of dollars, DD doesn’t deserve Y either. The market is not set once your superstar signs his contract, and sometimes you have extenuating circumstances like having a generational talent who needs a contract.

This is hardly buisness as usual, and should be approached that way to not only sign DD, but protect the relationship between DD and the Kings. The one thing the Kings have going for them is that DD loves LA, and handling this tough could force a wedge where there isn’t one currently.